Dean’s Award for Research Excellence – Undergraduate

The Dean’s Award for Research Excellence (DARE) provides opportunities for Liberal Arts & Professional Studies (LA&PS) undergraduate students to engage in research projects supervised by faculty members over the Summer Term.

The primary goal of the Award is to support the development of students’ research skills by providing them with hands-on experience on a research project being undertaken by a faculty supervisor.

Through the DARE experience, undergraduate students will:

receive one-on-one mentoring from a faculty member;
participate meaningfully in the process of scholarly inquiry;
develop research skills and experience to support them as they move forward in their careers;
investigate and learn about a research area of interest; and
gain valuable experience in the communication of research results, such as preparing and delivering poster presentations.

Award Value

$5,000 per student (paid as a monthly stipend over the summer months).

Eligibility

The awards are open to full-time undergraduate students enrolled in programs within the Faculty of LA&PS, including those graduating in June 2019, who:

will normally have a minimum GPA of 7.0; and
have completed at least 48 credits by the time they take up the award.

*Student awardees from the inaugural Program in 2018 are eligible to participate in the 2019 DARE program
*DARE supervisors who participated in the inaugural Program in 2018 are eligible to participate as supervisors in this 2019 DARE Program.

Number of awards for Summer 2019: There will be 30 awards available.

Duration of research activity: The research project is to be undertaken and completed during the Summer Term (May through August). Positions will commence on May 1, 2019.

DARE FAQs
Stage 1: Resume and Cover Letter

Deadline: February 8, 2019 by 4pm
After reviewing all Research Project Postings, (posted beginning January 22, 2019) interested students must submit via an online Expression of Interest form their resume and cover letter to the professor(s) whose project(s) they would like to work on by February 8, 2019 (by 4pm).
Stage 2: DARE Application (By invitation only)

Deadline: March 8, 2019 (by 4pm)*
Only those students who are selected by a faculty supervisor to work on their research project are invited to apply at this stage. Each student applicant must electronically submit a DARE Application package consisting of:

a completed DARE Application Form
faculty supervisor letter of recommendation**

* Note: Each student applicant is eligible to submit a maximum of one DARE application per competition. If a student is selected by more than one faculty supervisor in Stage 1, the student must decide on one project for which they will submit a complete DARE application, and convey this information to all faculty members involved.

** It is the student applicant’s responsibility to arrange for receipt of the letter of recommendation from the faculty supervisor and append it to their online application.

Please do not include any additional attachments (e.g. photos, appendices, brochures, etc.) as these will be removed prior to the review process.

Late or incomplete applications will not be considered.

Eligible Supervisors: Full-time tenure-track, tenured, CLA or CUPE 3903 Contract faculty members in the Faculty of LA&PS are eligible to submit a project as supervisors. Of the 30 awards supported in Summer 2019, up to 6 will be allocated for projects supervised by contract faculty. CLAs who agree to supervise students must have an employment contract that does not cease throughout the duration of the award.